The examination of biological specimens such as blood or urine is quite common in the medical profession. The procedure usually consists of placing a small quantity of the specimen on a microscope slide and spreading the quantity over the microscope slide in a thin layer. This may be accomplished by a cover glass or the like. In quantitive procedures the thickness of the layer may be important so that a true measure of the quantity observed is obtained.
In recent years slides have been made with an integrally formed "cover glass", most recently represented by U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,283, granted Dec. 4, 1973, to Carlos D. Elkins. The Elkins' slide includes a plurality of specimen containers each opened to one elongated side of the slide. The compartment is formed in a half moon shape having a top portion separated from the lower portion by an amount sufficient to permit capillary action to draw the sample into the chamber. While this slide performs the task adequately, it can present problems when the various cavities are overfilled. The cavities are totally dependent on capillary action to fill and, while this is usually accomplished easily there is a probability that an underfill could occur in which case there would be no means for accomplished easily there is a probability that an underfill thin half-moon shaped container, the mold must include rather delicate metal finger-like cores that do not have support at the extreme end. This can result in varying thickness in the "cover glass" portion of the molded slide.
Other versions of microscope slides which have been adapted for use in sample testing usually include more than a single piece. That is, a cover glass is also required so that the technician must first place the sample on the slide itself, and then place a cover glass over the sample in order to complete the microscopic examination.
In some cases the slide is built with the cavity for containing the specimen and an access hole either on the face of the slide or on one end of the slide. This access hole is used for placing the specimen on the test slide at the appropriate point. Capillary action may also be used in these applications to facilitate the material being drawn into the inspection area.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved microscope slide for specimen observation that overcomes disadvantages of previous slides.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a reasonably low priced microscope slide that is capable of being used with a plurality of samples.